Oregon’s first game in the NCAA tournament was phenomenal.
The No. 7 Ducks blasted Iowa’s No. 2 on the road to a 95-80 victory over the Hawkeyes in the second round of the western region. Oregon scored 56 points in the first half and hit 56% of the field, as Iowa was powerless to stop the Ducks’ attack.
Although the game was not incredibly competitive for most of the second half, it was one of the most fun games in the tournament so far. Unless you are an Iowa fan.
This fun should be expected; Iowa entered the game with an average of more than 80 points per game and Oregon’s attack came in 13th place on KenPom.com’s metrics. Combine that with two teams that were out of the top 50 in KenPom’s defensive ranking and the revenue was there for a penalty shootout.
And while Oregon increased its lead to 15 at the start of the second half, the game’s disorderly nature seemed well-suited to an attempted comeback in Iowa. It never really happened. The Hawkeyes narrowed the lead to 67-57 with just under 15 minutes left, before Joe Wieskamp appeared to aggravate an injury to his right ankle sustained in the Big Ten tournament. He cautiously walked off the court after awkwardly planting his ankle while losing the ball on the touchline.
Even though Wieskamp finally returned to the game after a brief absence, Oregon quickly dropped his lead to 15 and Iowa never came close.
All five Oregon holders scored nine or more points and scored the team’s first 78 points. The Ducks did not play in the first round of the NCAA tournament after their game against No. 10 VCU was declared without competition because of positive COVID-19 tests at VCU.
Iowa star Luka Garza scored 36 points, but did not receive much offensive help from anyone, as Iowa players, without the name Garza, hit 38% of the points.
The disastrous start of the Big Ten
The Big Ten placed nine teams in the 2021 NCAA men’s tournament. And with nine games completed in the second round, only two teams remain. Iowa became the seventh of nine teams to be eliminated during the first weekend with a complete defeat. And it is the second seed No. 2 of the Big Ten to be eliminated from the tournament; Ohio State lost to Oral Roberts in the first round.
Only Michigan and Maryland remain, and they both play on Monday. Terrapins are underdogs from Alabama and Michigan is preferred by five over LSU. It’s not too difficult to see Big Ten without a team at Sweet 16. And that would be an incredible disaster for a conference that was considered the best college basketball game of the season.
On the other hand, the Pac-12 has not yet lost a game. Oregon’s win pushed the conference to 8-0 in the tournament with Oregon State already on Sweet 16 with the Ducks and UCLA and USC yet to play on Monday.
How far can Oregon go?
Although we saw enough of the Big Ten during the first four days of the NCAA tournament to declare the conference’s performance poor, is it possible to believe that Oregon could be the biggest threat to Gonzaga in the west? It is not an absurd idea.
The Ducks showed on Monday that they have five starters who can live with any of the best teams in the country and have the ability to score enough points to face Gonzaga.
You can’t say that about Kansas or USC. Although the Jayhawks have played better lately, KU was in offensive funk in the middle of the season. And while the USC beat Oregon 14 during the regular season, it’s easy to see a potential Sweet 16 rematch much closer than the game on February 22.
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